It is not seven in the morning and the handball coach, Jordi Ribera, has already had his coffee and is reading the novel in complete solitude in the dining room of the High Performance Center (CAR) of Sierra Nevada. The windows of heavenby Gonzalo Giner. Nobody gets up early anymore. Half an hour later, he stands at the door, only inspects children between 13 and 15 years old who arrive for breakfast, and does not serve the toast (and another coffee) until everyone is seated. A month and a half ago he achieved his second Olympic bronze, the seventh medal in the last nine championships, and now, at 2,320 meters of altitude, in the still dark night of the mountains of Granada, he receives every day and for a week at 62 kids from all over Spain (there are usually 70), whom he trains, mentors and shows the way to handball.
Twice a year, in February and September, Ribera, 61, locks himself in these facilities with the base and a large entourage of 25 technicians in concentrations that do not take place from sun to sun, but from moon to moon, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and until close to midnight for the Catalan coach and his assistants. Outside, the sheep go out to graze, but inside no one notices. There is no rest. At 8:45, training; 11.15, technical-tactical talk; 12.00, physical preparation; 12.45, sports psychology; 1:30 p.m., lunch; 15.45, analysis with the goalkeepers; 4:50 p.m., match; 19.00, mindfulness; 8:30 p.m., dinner; and at 11:15 p.m., the little ones go to sleep.
“Before they had a free afternoon, but it’s not worth it. Between taking them, bringing them…”, points out José Luis Santacristina, the head of organization of these technical training sessions created and directed by Jordi Ribera since 2017. This newspaper has attended these activities for two full days, where new talents are tracked, to those players with great physique so rare in Spain and, above all, these young people, and even children, are treated as high-performance athletes to offer them tools of all kinds that will later help them progress in their clubs, some of them small. those who must leave if they want to advance.
Seven coaches, three video analysts, two goalkeeper trainers, two physical trainers, three physios, a doctor, a nutritionist, a delegate, a mindfulness instructor, two referees and the coordinator usually accompany Ribera.
Ribera had already implemented the project in Brazil and had verified the effects. “Technization has been done in Spain for a long time and with results [en verano había concentraciones con 40 infantiles y 40 cadetes]but when they signed me in 2016 I thought we needed a boost,” says the coach, much more relaxed in the cloistered convent of the CAR than in a big tournament. “If you make a selection with 16 15-year-old kids to compete, how many do you think there can be? 30? But if you do an activity with 70, how many aspire to join? 400? Then you had to give it a sense of identity through the game. There is an ABC that is transmitted. A boy who comes here and sees the absolute team will realize that there are things that he has practiced. And in parallel, the elders have been aware that their results helped us maintain this. When the titles began to arrive, with the 2018 European Championship, ‘what are you going to say to this [por él]? Let him leave it?’ That gave us strength to continue,” says the Catalan coach, who also had to convince the CAR directors.
“At first, they were scared because we were going to come with kids and high-performance athletes train here. But we agreed to try and, if it went wrong, we would leave. Starting in 2018 we expanded the number of activities,” recalls the coach, who appreciates the isolation of the mountain. “Some parents have tried to get in, but they can’t. This is like a bunker. “It’s what we were looking for,” he celebrates. So far, 716 different players (1,595 places; many have repeated) between 13 and 17 years old, and 160 technicians, have participated in 26 concentrations. In addition to the young people, the expedition is usually completed by seven coaches plus Jordi Ribera, three video technicians-analysts (three cameras record each training session and match), two goalkeeper coaches, two physical trainers, three physios, a doctor, a nutritionist, a delegate, an instructor mindfulnesstwo referees and the coordinator. In total, about 100 people. And what is more satisfying for the coach: this or coaching the seniors? “Probably, in the future, I will see this project with more satisfaction from a personal point of view,” he acknowledges.
“It consists of planting a seed, putting poison in them, making them see that others have arrived starting where they are now,” highlights Javier Fernández, Young wild boarthe junior coach who leads the most successful generation of all those who have passed through Sierra Nevada, those born in 2004-05. They have achieved something unique: being champions of Europe and the world in Youth, and of Europe in Junior. Next summer they will look for the Junior World Cup. There are, of course, the Cikusa twins, Víctor Romero, Ferrán Castillo, Xavi González and Ian Barrufet. And the last pride of the factory is that two winners of the recent Olympic bronze, Javi Rodríguez and Dani Fernández, are also products of the new stage of work with the base. The first attended all the concentrations in Sierra Nevada, but the second barely appeared, which helps Ribera to warn the young people that nothing is written in the formation, except breaking stones.
“It consists of giving them poison, making them see that others have arrived starting where they are now”
Javier Fernández, ‘Jabato’, coach of the junior team
“The pivot Jokin Aja, for example,” says Daniel Sánchez Nieves, coach of the Promesas team, “the first time he came he couldn’t even train because he didn’t have the physical conditions. But he has reached the top with effort,” he highlights about one of the great hopes, a young man from Eibar, 2.06 and 20 years old, who plays in Torrelavega. One of those bodies that are so desired because they are so rare in Spain. “The clubs also notify us when a player with a certain size arrives, even if he is technically and tactically green,” adds the coach.
“What I like the most are the training sessions and the little games,” admits one of the kids, to no one’s surprise. But the method, which now aspires to be transferred to the female base, delves into other territories not so visible to a 14-year-old boy. “What is success?” asks Jorge Martínez, who offers the psychology class to the generation born in 2009-10, concentrated this week (the previous one was the turn of 2007-08). Everyone answers that they win, but the answer is not correct. “It is doing well that depends on us. We have to be above the result.” The nutritionist Miguel Mariscal went the day before. “I like to talk to them about hydration. It is very easy to do it well, but difficult to fulfill it. They should drink water in small quantities constantly, and add salts during training; Even a little table salt in a bottle of water is worth it, what fits in your fingertips,” explains this professor at the University of Granada. At the end of each track session are the bananas that Santacristina brings from a supermarket in Granada, where they make a price for it. Four boats for two days. And Mariscal’s most resounding message is that “alcohol is a no, never in high performance.”
“We have a plan, because in other countries, like France, there is much more budget and means”
Jordi Ribera, absolute coach and head of the program
“Here you train at a lot of intensity, it’s another level,” admits a goalkeeper who has come from Galicia for the second time. In the gym, physical trainers Álvaro Caro and Daniel Gutiérrez insist on technique and see who really works hard. In the middle and at the end of the week, each kid is analyzed and scored from all angles by the technicians, and from then on they will track him. Last season, for example, 44% of Asobal’s national players had gone through these days. The project, beyond those selected for the CAR, controls about 300 names per calendar year of birth. “We have a plan, because there are other countries, like France, with much more budget and means,” concludes Jordi Ribera, who at 7:30 moves chairs in the dining room for the kids.
